this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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I hate to say it, but I'm inclined to think that the Russian government may simply block access to Firefox (and the Firefox addons site).
https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share
Firefox has 2.82% marketshare as of May 2024. It'd create disruption to block it, but I'd expect that that's probably low enough that it's not in the "too big to kill" category.
If it were 2010, then yeah, I'd say that the price to pay for blocking Firefox is maybe one that's too high for the Kremlin to be willing to pay.
What's really clobbered Firefox has been the rise of smartphones, where Firefox has very limited uptake.
I use Firefox on both my phone and desktop, so I can say that it's definitely usable...but it's not the default. Google owns Android and uses their browser as the default, and Apple owns iOS and uses their browser as the default. I would bet that a very low proportion of smartphone users are ever going to seek out and install a different browser, and Firefox can only really compete for the users who are willing to do that.
They can kill access to the Firefox website and prevent people from getting access to the addon (well, okay, if you can manually find an .xpi, and have the technical chops to do so, you can download it elsewhere and install it locally).
Seems like some third-party hosting is in order to support any Rebellion Russians.
Aside from blocking the add-ons site, they might block the update servers. Linux wouldn't be affected I think (unless they block rpm, apt... As a whole), but on windows I think it updates from Firefox servers directly.
There are probably ways around it, but it's a burden for the windows users.
I bet ready to run copies of Firefox with Russian anti censorship add ons is going to be real popular on the very numerous Russian putacy sites.
Yeah, but a browser isn't something that you probably want to be getting from an untrusted source. Hell, random malware aside, the Kremlin themselves could probably just actively distribute a modified Firefox, see what people who don't want to be blocked are getting up to and grab their credentials to websites.
I mean, there are ways to do it. You find some alternate source that you trust to get a hash of a browser release or a copy of signing keys or something and get a signature from someone you trust and validate that, but that's narrowing down the pool of people for whom the browser is accessible a long ways.
I mean, yeah, if I were in Russia, I'd probably use an SSH tunnel to get out. They can block VPN providers that don't apply the government blocklist, but I don't believe that they're prepared to kill outbound SSH. But the government just needs to block the vast majority, and the vast majority aren't gonna be doing that.
Like, you make the path of least resistance to live in an information bubble, then make the resistance to doing something else high enough, and you've got the 99.9% solution that you need.
Desperate people in desperate times.
They will force local ISPs and Russian VPN companies to block access to Mozilla’s domains. Same thing China has been doing with the Great Firewall for years.
Just to be clear, mozilla.org is not blocked in China
Probably true, but that's not justification for Mozilla to save them the trouble by doing it for them.
That's fucking crazy, because Firefox has been far better than the default options for as long as I've had a smartphone. I only recently dumped chrome on desktop for Firefox, but I took one look at Chrome when I got an android and immediately dumped that shit.
They did that a few times before without any warning, which is why I'm inclined to think it's Mozilla using the situation for PR. I mean, why not, if the Russian government presents them with an opportunity.
In that case why block the add-ons in the first place? There is a risk that the "Mozilla is blocking privacy friendly add-ons on the behest of an authoritarian regime!" news will become more widely known than any correction. If it had been a planned PR move then any person involved in it should never work in marketing again.